Oh my god the beginning is awesome as Hansen attacks Sarge while he is on the floor but Sarge beats him to the punch and proceeds to beat his ass WITH HIS HAT on. He gets Hansen in the ring and slams him and then hits a sick looking series of punches right to Hansen's face. Hansen flees but comes back and eventually takes over with some chops. He knocks Sarge on his ass with a jumping knee and goes to a front facelock. Hansen knees him in the back of the head and Sarge takes his post shot. There is an insanely stiff knee thrown with Sarge on the ropes as you can actually watch his head snap back upon impact. Hansen ends up taking over on the leg of Sarge which Sarge sells well enough, but this is a situation where the longview of the camera does not the holds a lot of favors. Hansen taunting the crowd after what appeared to be a low blow was a nice "house show" moment. Hansen starts almost taunting Sarge to get back to his feet with kicks and chops and sure enough Sarge starts to fire up. Awesome sequence with Hansen eating rights, stumbling backwards into the ropes and Sarge starts working the left jab. Sarge goes for a slam but his leg gives out and Hansen hits a belly to back for a nearfall. They do a dropdown rope running spot into a double knockdown and then get up long enough for Slaughter to hit a neckbreaker that they both sell. Slaughter hits a backbreaker for a one count and then a second for a two count. Slaughter whips him into the ropes and there is a spot that looked pretty brutal as Sarge goes for a clothesline, but Hansen surges forward and just creams him with a lariat. They both work their way back up Hansen hits a slam but misses a follow up elbow. Hansen collapses in a heap after some turnbuckle shots and takes a series of guilliotine shots from Sarge. Sarge gets the Cobra Clutch but Hansen makes the ropes. Hansen misses a corner charge and takes a variation of Sarge's wild over the top bump! Sarge slams his face into the railing and goes for his running clothesline but Hansen ducks and Sarge takes an insane over the top bump to the floor. Hansen grabs a chair and goes to deck Sarge but ends up hitting the post when Sarge ducks. This goes to a double countout, but post-match they brawl some more, with Hansen going over to get in the face of fans, and the two guys literally fighting all the way to the back. In my head this should have been the greatest match ever and while it wasn't that good it was good as fuck.

AWA World Heavyweight Title: Stan "The Lariat" Hansen © vs. Sgt. Slaughter (2/23/86)

 

This starts off with a wild brawl on the floor with both men teeing off on each other and the back-and-forth goes for a while until Hansen goes to work on Slaughter's leg. Hansen was solid here working over Slaughter and taunting the fans with Sarge making a great comeback and this has now become a total slugfest with both men putting it all out there bumping like crazy especially Hansen who actually took Slaughter's over the top bump to the floor which Sarge felt like he had to outdo by going over the top on his own. They would go back to the brawling on the floor leading to a double countout finish and both men brawling all the way to the back. I wish we had a professional shot of this because that would make it even greater but as it is this is still an awesome match and a slam dunk nomination.